COME AND SEE THE SHOW: THE BEST OF EMERSON LAKE & PALMER

This is not a terrible collection of ELP songs, but it is certainly not the best representation of what this band has to offer. Overall this CD leans heavily towards Greg Lake's contributions to the band's repertoire. Lake's songs tend to be more pop oriented, compared to the more lengthy tracks that usually make up an ELP LP. Still ... there is a lot on here that might turn you on, to qoute from the ever so suave Senor Lake himself.

Some nice choice inclusions on this collection include Knife Edge, a song that shows ELP on their first album taking on the new cynical, almost gothic, hard-edged heavy early 70s sound of such bands as the new Gillan led Deep Purple, Alicer Cooper and Black Sabbath. Emerson adds further to the gothic sound of the song by adding a Bach derived organ solo in the middle section. Also Tank, another gem from their first album, displays a style unique to ELP that combines rock, jazz, psychedelic soundtracks and 60s exotic instrumentals. Toccata and Karn Evil 9 are also great choices for an ELP collection, with the latter being one of the finest examples of thematic development within a rock song.

The icing on the cake for this collection is Lake's sarcastic faux-Christmas song about Father Christmas. Easily one of the more clever songs that ever had the names Lake-Sinfield attached to it.

This album does not get into some of the deeper music that ELP has to offer, but instead contains a lot of Greg Lake's more accessible tunes, as well as some well chosen cuts that better show what ELP was capable of.